Cusco and Quinta Lala.

This page comes to you from the remarkable Quinta
Lala camp site near the Sacsayhuaman archaeological site just outside
Cusco. We had heard good reports of Quinta Lala from several
people we met en-route to Cusco.

We had a street map of Cusco, we had directions and we even had a
GPS location (S 13.505862 W 71.984937) and K-Nine was leading, what could go
wrong? Corpus Christi!(Feast of (Latin: body of Christ)
A Christian feast honouring the institution of the Eucharist, observed in the
West on the second Thursday after Whit Sunday. It is not generally observed by
Protestant Churches).

Try as we might every time we attempted to cross the centre of
Cusco to get to Quinta Lala we were stopped at a "road closed"
barrier. The entire city centre was closed in preparation for the Corpus
Christi processions the following day. We could get within 800 metres of
Quinta Lala, we could even see it, but we could not get our vans
there. Eventually we found a taxi driver who agreed to lead us the 15km around
Cusco that would allow us to approach Quinta Lala from the
East.

Quinta Lala is a
very rare thing in Central and South America: a real camp site with water,
electricity (220 volts!) hot showers, security, grass, a laundry and even
wireless Internet (hence all the photos, maps and GPS tracks)!

But even more important, it is run for overlanders by an
enthusiast: Helmie Paulissen (originally from Holland). Check out their
web site
to see who is staying there now!

You can walk into town from Quinta Lala in about 25
minutes (downhill using the steps) and a taxi back from the centre should cost
4 or 5 Soles. Quinta Lala makes an excellent base to explore the
Inca Sacred Valley and of course Machu Picchu. Highly
recommended.

How to find Quinta Lala.

Instructions: From the Plaza de
Armas (the main square in Cusco) enter Plateros and its
continuation Saphi. At the end of the wide road turn sharp right
at the first hairpin (Billboard: El Cusco es Primero), and follow
the steep ascending road. Leave the church at your left; go through the second
hairpin and zigzag another kilometer until you see on a curve a wooden sign at
your left hand which says: Hacienda Llaullypata, Reserva Ecoturistica
Privada. Enter this little cobbled road. The second house on the right
is Quinta Lala, your home in Cusco!

The reason for the very detailed instructions is that there are
many narrow streets in Cusco, a complex one way system and some streets turn
into steps! If you get really stuck (as we did) follow a taxi. If the taxi does
not know Quinta Lala ask for the Hotel Inca Tambo
next door. The cost should be about 5 to 10 Soles.

Or for the brave follow one of our GPS
Tracks.

If you would like to follow a GPS track to Quinta Lala from the
Nasca-Cusco road you can download a Zip file
containing both a short (7km) and long (15km) track (as above). The Long track
may be useful during festivals (when the area around Plaza de
Armas may be closed) or for those arriving from the South.

The turn off from the main road from Nasca for the start of the
short track is at S 13.507497 W 71.996799, just passed the large green "Cusco"
town sign.